Since the beginning of time, doors have symbolized both great opportunities and thwarted dreams. The open door is a metaphor for new life, a passage from one stage of life to another, and metamorphosis. Closed doors represent rejection and exclusion.

Kashmir

The DoorToo little has been saidOf the door, its oneFace turned to the night’sDownpour and its otherTo the shift and glisten of firelight.

Bamiyan, Afghanistan

For doorsAre both frame and monumentTo our spent time, And too littleHas been saidOf our coming through and leaving by them.- Charles Tomlinson

India

Cambodia

Tibet

Kabul, Afghanistan

Mingun Pagoda, near Mandalay, Burma/Myanmar

Porbandar, India

West Kabul, Afghanistan

India

Los Angeles, United States

The door swings open:

O god of hinges,

god of long voyages,

you have kept faith.

It’s dark in there.

You confide yourself to the darkness

You step in.

The door swings closed.
– Margaret Atwood

Kabul, Afghanistan

Bamiyan, Afghanistan

A door just opened on a street–I, lost, was passing by–An instant’s width of warmth disclosedAnd wealth, and company.

The door as sudden shut, and I,I, lost, was passing by,–Lost doubly, but by contrast most,Enlightening misery. - Emily Dickinson

Bombay/Mumbai, India

Kabul, Afghanistan

Dhaka, Bangladesh

The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort – the opening terror.

Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing.
The opening a wonderfully joyous moment.